Fast-track busway project rescued

Plans to introduce a fast-track bus route between Manchester and Leigh have been saved. Labour councillors won their first vote since losing control of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority two years ago to rescue the Leigh Guided Busway project which has been on the drawing board since 1996.

Labour councillors won their first vote since losing control of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority two years ago to rescue the Leigh Guided Busway project which has been on the drawing board since 1996.

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Plans to introduce a fast-track bus route between Manchester and Leigh have been saved.

Labour councillors won their first vote since losing control of Greater Manchester Integrated Transport Authority two years ago to rescue the Leigh Guided Busway project which has been on the drawing board since 1996.

Dubbed the 'misguided busway' by opponents, the scheme promises a new high quality public transport service linking Wigan and Leigh with Salford and Manchester on 13 miles of segregated busway between Leigh, Salford and Manchester.

Four miles between Leigh and Ellenbrook in Salford will be a guided busway section, sweeping buses past traffic.

The authority's ruling Lib Dem group moved to defer vital preparatory work worth £1.3m when its emergency committee met on Friday.

But government permission for the scheme runs out shortly and the delay would have meant having to apply for Transport and Works Act approval all over again. Furious Labour councillors opposed the move and won the vote after they were joined by Tameside Tory councillor Doreen Dickinson - and the Lib Dem members decided to abstain from the vote.

Afterwards, Labour group leader and Manchester councillor Andrew Fender said: "This would have been an outrageous act by a sham administration."

Authority chairman Coun Keith Whitmore said: "These schemes are all going to have to be looked at in the light of the major spending cuts which will have to be made.

“We wanted to defer this one for a while until we get some clarity.

"It is something which is probably going to bite the dust eventually but Labour were very keen to put it through and as it is one of the AGMA priority schemes, we allowed the vote to go through."

The Lib Dem/ Conservative coalition has controlled the ITA since wresting power from Labour - which remains the biggest party - two years ago.

The authority meets next month to decide who will take power following Labour gains in Greater Manchester at the local elections earlier this month.